THE HERITAGE OF HATE
The blackest aspect of the sin which Germany has committed in this war
is not to be found in the ruined churches and the devastated homes. The
vandalistic crime which asserted itself in destroying school-houses and
libraries and works of art, in desolating the fields and laying low the
country, sinks into the background when compared with the wickedness of
sowing that heritage of hate in untold millions of hearts--a hate which
will endure and bear fruit against her long after the present conflict
has passed into history.
Ernest Lissauer, in his well-known "hymn" expressed the venom and hatred
of Germany for those of other nations who do not concede her the right
of world conquest, and was decorated for it by the Emperor. And although
an attempt was made to suppress the hymn after the Germans realized its
detriment to themselves the seed had been sown far and wide and could
not be recalled. Germany had spread race hatred in the world, and that
is the greatest barrier there is to human progress.
[Illustration: _Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._
DESTRUCTION OF A FRENCH HOSPITAL BY A GERMAN BOMB.
Utter disregard of humanity's laws is the German way of fighting. The
photograph shows the basement of a hospital after it had been
deliberately bombed by the Germans. To the left can be seen a mass of
iron beds and human bodies intermingled. Such is German "Kultur."]
Universal brotherhood for which Jesus lived and died, and for which the
noblest men have always lived, has been turned back a thousand years by
Germany, and that is her great crime. That is the accusation for which
her military leaders will have to answer before the bar of God on the
solemn Judgment Day. She sowed to the wind and she reaps the whirlwind.
Not only has she stirred up bitterness and hate in the breasts of her
own people, but by her foul deeds, the offspring of that hatred, she has
planted a hate in the very beings and natures of the people of her enemy
countries which almost equals it. In the earlier days of the war it was
occasionally said that there was no hatred between the opposing soldiers
and that the people of the conquered territories often fraternized with
the German invaders. It was a lie. Although the men of France and
Belgium were very scarce in the towns and cities, because most of them
had gone to the trenches, and although the women were perhaps lonesome
for companionship, yet woe be to that insulting German soldier who
attempted to converse or walk with a French girl on the street, for he
would receive such a withering look and answer as would make the blood
run cold in any man with an ounce of self-respect. The girls of the
conquered countries today would rather play with serpents than hold any
kind of conversation or have any social intercourse with the haughty
invaders.
In the beginning they tried to force their obnoxious attentions on the
women; but they soon learned better and in the regions which they
arrogantly possess today the German soldiers are the most shunned and
lonely people that ever lived. Little babes just learning to talk are
schooled to hate the Germans. Many a time I have seen young mothers with
painstaking care drilling the little ones to lisp vengeance upon their
enemy. Instead of the affectionate terms of "papa" and "mamma" which all
nationalities first teach the infant the outraged inhabitants pronounce
the words _Les Allemands Boche_, and _The Kaiser Kaput_. "The Germans
are contemptible" and "Cut the head off the Kaiser."
No man need tell me that this universal feeling will soon die away and
that when peace comes about normal relations will soon be restored. It
is not human nature. Like the snake in the garden of Eden which brought
the hatred of the race upon itself so that evermore "the heel of mankind
shall crush the serpent's head," so has Germany brought down the
maledictions of the human race upon her head, so that for a long time to
come the hand of every man will be against her. This is the sad part of
it all and this is the crime for which Germany will yet give account. I
heard one soldier, who had had more than ordinary experience with their
method of atrocity, say: "I'd like to have every man, woman, and child
in Germany killed without mercy and I'd like to be there with the
bayonet to finish up the job!"
I maintain that if God be just, not that man, but his enemy who drove
him to that attitude will be held to account for his fearful hatred.
When history is written and when Germany, instead of profiting by her
sin, shall be eating the bitter fruits of her own unrighteousness then
shall the Scripture be fulfilled in her ears, "Ye cannot gather grapes
of thorns nor figs of thistles." "The way of the transgressor is hard,"
and "In like manner as ye sow, so shall ye reap, full measure, heaped
up, shaken together, running over."
It is not merely a penalty placed by the Allied nations upon an
offending country. It is not simply that we shall say we will "get even
with her" and will take revenge for all her inhuman outrages, but it is
that the immutable fiat of God goes forth, and that the one who flings
himself against that great law shall pay to the uttermost farthing.